Stella has lived all her life in loneliness, neglected by her parents since childhood. She thinks her family has long since fallen apart, but perhaps that isn't the case."According to the List" is a short story that reflects the personal views of the author in terms of many of life's question. What would you do if you won the lottery? If you were stranded on an island? What do you need in life in order to be happy? A writer may drown themselves away from the world, but the words will always be there. Written in a poetic narrative style venture through this short story along with D.e.e.L and his outlook on the word and the beauty that it truly holds. Bliss is out there for everyone.

Come on a journey through space, time, death and reality.To learn what it truly is to be human, even when your not.Revel in mankind’s greatest achievements, and bear witness to our darkest hours. Search for life at the ends of the universe, and beyond.Drawing on the inspiration of classic science fiction books, films and television.All set to the backdrop, of a soundtrack for every generation.A European ruler destroys democracy, replaces a debased currency with new coin, forces Jews to wear a yellow badge, strikes a deal with an Asian power, and then invades France. History does repeat itself: this was King Edward I of England. In 1265 a single battle at Evesham decided the fate of western civilization. The forces of democracy lost and Britain was plunged into a reign of terror. Sir Roger D'Audley was on the losing side but managed to escape the slaughter and return to Outremer - the Frankish Kingdoms of the Holy Land - where Persian esotericism was at its peak and sowing the seeds of the future Enlightenment. Back in 2008, as the world slips into recession, Mary Wodehouse, a young Scottish dentist, finds her life entangled with a bum who falls out of a Church wall and thinks he is the Templar Knight Sir Roger D’ Audley. And now Roger believes that he is destined to confront a Yardie Gangster, ‘King of the Ring’ Edwards, a crook bent on causing further chaos in the London stock market.

(13+ Warning contains violence, horror, and mature humour) Life in the Dark Cities is harsh. Brutal serfdom is enforced with the lash and the threat of becoming dinner for a ravenous demon. For Kasus, knowledge is the power to free himself from this hellpit. However, the price could be a heavy one. Will it cost him his humanity?Magic was the province of the wealthy and well connected, or in the case of necromancy, the insane. He was not sufficiently rich or high born to train as an artiphicer or unifier. A house slave from a Dark City estate could not hope to gather the resources to become any of these, let alone access the ley-nexus locations needed to gather arcane energy. His would have to be a less orthodox route. His access to arcane knowledge, fuelled by his tremendous desire to escape would lead Kasus down a shadowed path few would dare consider.

When Jack Gruffydd crosses the Irish Sea he is disturbed by an odd sense of recognition meeting Kate. She thought the peat bog Celtic cross she'd found at the ancient monastic site in Athlone was magical but fear crossed Jack’s heart and time pressed its weight on him as it had many times before. This time though, he understands. Jack and Kate are about to discover they have a history.At the end there was a beginning, and then the circle must return. There would always be a beginning. The damaged peat bog Celtic cross she had found at the ancient monastic site in Athlone was probably hundreds, if not around a thousand years old and she’d felt something strange when she touched it. When Jack Gruffydd reads the strange advertisement for a psychic he is intrigued enough to answer the odd call for help. After several phone calls and emails, Jack finally flies to Ireland however is greatly disturbed by a peculiar sense of recognition and foreboding on meeting the very elusive and charming Kate. When he touches the ancient cross, fear crosses Jack’s heart and time forces its weight upon him as it has done many times before. This time is different, though. This time, he understands. Jack and Kate are about to discover that they have a history.Black Irish is a short story prologue to the Conwy series.

After Cerise Mooreland steps through the Chaos Gate, she finds herself falling through a world of her almost forgotten memories. As a pattern begins to emerge, she wakes somewhere altogether unexpected.I thought I was competing for a promotion... But, what I got was something way better.I, Constance Ferrer, got transformed into a creature of nightmare imaginaries. I was on my way to being inducted into Psylas' Niche within the Blood Kin—a complex vampire hierarchy wrought of intrigue and danger. While I'd fantasized about such absurdities, they had been vastly beyond my mediocre reality. Until now.I'd heard that ignorance was bliss. Well, according to my experiences, bliss was All Wallows' Eve. ~ This Book Bite is a prelude to Beatific (a Blood Kin Vampires novel).

a second tale about the furry friends; once again told in verse. the fluff gang are shocked when a giant sized, very grumpy, next door neighbour moves in.a second tale about the furry friends; once again told in verse. the fluff gang are shocked when a giant sized, very grumpy, next door neighbour moves in. they want to make friends with him, but he isn’t at all easy to get to know or get along with.

Gwenlyn Bennet has lived peacefully as an honorary member of the notorious Summers coven for ten years, but she’s never known a blood relative until she wakes up with the ghost of her twin sister hovering above her bed. When the coven falls mysteriously ill, Gwenlyn embarks on a quest for a cure with the dubious help of her dead sister.Gwenlyn Bennet has lived peacefully as an honorary member of the notorious Summers coven for ten years, but she’s never known a blood relative until she wakes up with the ghost of her twin sister hovering above her bed. When the coven falls mysteriously ill, Gwenlyn embarks on a quest for a cure with the dubious help of her dead sister, but can the duo accomplish their task before the witches run out of time?

A True Pessimist is a humorous short story by Alan Chains, writer of Return to Island X.When Little League baseball players take the field nothing else matters. Who you are and where you come from is cast aside when these young 10 - 13 year old ballplayers hear the umpire cry out, "Play Ball." Can a little talent, lots of guts, and a dose of baseball sense allow these young players to become a team and make it a season to remember?In this true to life story, a season of Little League baseball takes center stage in the lives of young 10 - 13 year old ball players. Michael cannot wait for the first game to begin but he recognizes some festering tension. Their ace pitcher has a fastball that sings, yet Carlos the catcher and Jake the right fielder want to clash when they should be clicking. What will it take for these young baseball players to set aside their differences? Can they do it in time with the big game approaching?Young and courageous 10 -13 year old baseball players are taught valuable lessons in a magical summer that interjects into their personal lives the wonderful game called Little League baseball.In the intersection of their lives with the game of Little League baseball will they be able to take home the biggest prize of all?

After being told he was adopted on his 18th birthday Patrick Waverly sets out to find his birth parents. He boards a plane, strikes up a conversation with a passenger next to him. What happens next will change his life forever.After being told he was adopted on his 18th birthday Patrick Waverly sets out to find his birth parents. He boards a plane, strikes up a conversation with a passenger next to him. What happens next will change his life forever. Join him on his Journey and you won't be disappointed.

Davanté's heart sinks to the lowest of depths. He cannot lose his mother now. He is only seventeen years old. He has not learned enough about life to be on his own. He does not know how to live. To add to his grief, his long lost father re-emerges in his life with an agenda to make amends.Through a journey of pain, Davanté learns to forgive. He learns to love again. He learns to live anewDavanté Williams senses his mother slipping away. As her only child, he can easily discern between the usual buoyancy of his mother’s spirit and the now weakened trace that is leaving. Davanté’s skin prickles as the shadows of loneliness threaten. He cannot lose her now. He is too young. Barely seventeen. An almost-man.Mother moves on, leaving Davanté to struggle with grief. He shuffles through his last senior classes like a ghost trapped between two realities. In one, he must muster his energies to prepare his senior project for graduation. In the other reality, he reminisces over his mother and wonders about her secretive and tragic past.Love keeps Davanté afloat despite his trials. The love of true friendship. Family. Perfect strangers. His art: the colorful graphic works made from his hands. All work to hold Davanté in place.That is, until his mysterious father surfaces. A man of a dark past. An ex-convict. A rumored murderer. Davanté’s father swiftly becomes a thorn in Davanté’s side. His father wants to amend and make new, but Davanté is having none of it.He lashes out. He rebels. He pushes his father away. Love, he cannot push away so readily. It wraps itself around Davanté again, reminding him of who is, where he is from, and where he should be going.Eventually, Davanté learns to forgive. He learns to love. He learns to live anew.

New York Times bestselling author Molly McAdams delivers another heart-wrenching, emotional novel in her Thatch series… After her first love was ripped from her grasp four years earlier, Charlie Easton was sure she would never be able to trust anyone with the shattered pieces of her heart again. That is, until Deacon Carver forces himself into her life, and makes those pieces swirl in chaos. But Charlie doesn't know how to let him in… until a stranger stumbles upon a notebook filled with her innermost secrets, and shows her how. Deacon Carver is known for sleeping his way through the town of Thatch, as well as the surrounding cities—something he used to take pride in. But that persona has haunted Deacon ever since he decided to leave that life behind for the girl he wants more than anything: Charlie Easton. But when another girl falls into Deacon's life, allowing him to be himself without judgment for his past, will their conversations hinder his relationship with Charlie … even if he's never seen her?

Fighting terrorism on foreign ground, CIA superagent Mitch Rapp does whatever it takes to protect American freedom. MEMORIAL DAY CIA intelligence has pointed to a major terrorist attack on the United States, just as the nation's capital prepares for a grand Memorial Day tribute to the veterans of World War II. Racing to Afghanistan, Mitch Rapp leads a commando raid on an al Queda stronghold in a remote border village -- and defuses plans for a nuclear strike on Washington. The crisis averted, the special ops work is done. But Rapp knows, in the face of a new kind of enemy, nothing is as it seems -- and it's up to him alone to avert a disaster of unimaginable proportions.

Death and Deception . . . Meredith MacAlpin, Scottish noblewoman, is kidnapped at the altar by infamous Highland Barbarian, Brice Campbell, and spirited away to his fortress in the Highlands. It is rumored that he is the one who has killed her people in a series of raids. Brice Campbell is desperate to prove his innocence and bring peace to his people, but when he kills the wrong man, his enemy vows revenge. Can enemies become lovers? Is love strong enough to defy even death?

She sees brief glimpses of the future… Nika and Alena Brennan will do anything to kill a vicious Russian crime boss and they’re using his only son to get to him. Yet when the time comes to execute their plan, psychic Nika hesitates due to an unexpected entanglement with sexy security expert Declan Gallagher. When her sister is kidnapped and all their carefully laid plans go awry, Nika must depend on Declan and her mortal enemy’s son to get her sister back. He invades her dreams and teases her with sensual pleasures… As a dream walker, Declan is capable of seeing anyone’s innermost thoughts as they sleep. With Nika, however, he finds himself playing a deadly, seductive game. He knows she’s not who she says she is and he’s determined to find out the real reason she’s in Miami before she gets herself or someone else killed. Time is running out… Nika’s window of opportunity is closing to save her sister and find a way to protect their secrets without landing them both in jail. With innocent lives at stake, Nika must decide if the retribution she’s waited a lifetime for is worth losing the man who has won her heart. Length: Novel (81,000 words) Author note: This is a stand-alone novel.

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, "The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

James A. Michener, the master of historical fiction, revisits the scenes of his first great work, Tales of the South Pacific, the Pulitzer Prize winner that brought him international acclaim. In this sequel collection, Michener once again evokes the magic of the extraordinary isles in the Pacific—from Fiji and Gaudalcanal to New Zealand and Papua New Guinea—through stories that burst with adventure, charm, and local color. For Michener’s many fans around the globe, Return to Paradise is a precious second look at a land of enchantment by one of the most gifted storytellers of the twentieth century. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for Return to Paradise  * “A brilliant book and a worthy successor to Tales of the South Pacific*.”—The Atlanta Constitution  * “This is a book that should be read by everyone. . . . All who have seen the South Pacific will find on every page the odors of frangipani, copra, blood, and beer.”—*The New York Times  * “There’s drama and pathos and adventure and humanity . . . and a very high degree of excellence. Michener can write.”—Kirkus Reviews***

During an unnamed battle, 18-year-old private Henry Fleming survives what he considers to be a lost cause by escaping into a nearby wood, deserting his battalion. He finds a group of injured men in which one of the group, the "Tattered Soldier", asks Henry, who's often referred to as "The Youth", where he's wounded. Henry, embarrassed that he's whole, wanders thru the forest. He ultimately decides that running was the best thing, & that he's a small part of the army responsible for saving himself. When he learns that his battalion had won the battle, Henry feels guilty. As a result, he returns to his battalion & is injured when a cannon operator hits him in the head because he wouldn't let go of his arm. When he returns to camp, the other soldiers believe he was harmed by a bullet grazing him in battle. The next morning he goes into battle for a 3rd time. While looking for a stream from which to attain water, he discovers from the commanding officer that his regiment has a lackluster reputation. The officer speaks casually about sacrificing Henry's regiment because they're nothing more than "mule drivers" & "mud diggers". With no regiments to spare, the general orders his men forward. In the final battle, Henry becomes one of the best fighters in his battalion as well as the flag bearer, finally proving his courage as a man.

Kendall loves her life in small town Cryer's Cross, Montana, but she also longs for something more. She knows the chances of going to school in New York are small, but she's not the type to give up easily. Even though it will mean leaving Nico, the world's sweetest boyfriend, behind. But when Cryer's Cross is rocked by unspeakable tragedy, Kendall shoves her dreams aside and focuses on just one goal: help find her missing friends. Even if it means spending time with the one boy she shouldn't get close to... the one boy who makes her question everything she feels for Nico. Determined to help and to stay true to the boy she's always loved, Kendall keeps up the search--and stumbles upon some frightening local history. She knows she can't stop digging, but Kendall is about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried....

Danger, betrayal, and redemption come together in the sixth installment in T. S. Joyce’s bestselling Saw Bears series. Riley Miller is on the run. In an effort to do something nice, she lands right in the middle of danger. A trek to the wilderness will put her under Damon Daye’s protection, but it’ll also dump her in the direct path of one sexy, snarly lumberjack werebear, Drew. His interest is stirring up feelings she’s forgotten exist, but she can’t get too attached to him. She has two weeks to spend in the mountains, and after that, she must leave to reclaim her life back in the city. But the Ashe Crew isn’t making it easy on her. Here, she could find the life she’s been looking for if only her demons would stay in her past. Drew Hudson is losing his mind. Coming off a devastating loss, he’s doing anything he can think of to keep his inner bear from going stark raving mad, including risky stunts that threaten to expose the Ashe Crew as bear shifters. When a chance encounter with a sexy hitchhiker settles his animal side, he can’t help but wonder about all the secrets Riley Miller is keeping. But when her past unravels little by little, he’ll have to take control of his animal in order to protect her. And if he can allow this selfless, mind-consuming, tough-as-nails human to soften his heart, he just might find himself again. Content Warning: explicit love scenes, naughty language, and piles of sexy shifter secrets. Adult only bear shifter romance.

Blake Tarbell has a town to save. Rich, carefree, and used to the Vegas party lifestyle, Blake is thrown for a curve when his former cocktail-waitress mother pleads he go back to her roots to save the town she grew up in. Blake's used to using money to solve his problems, but when he arrives in Sweetheart, North Dakota, this city boy has to trade in his high-priced shoes for a pair of cowboy boots...and he's about to get a little help from the loveliest lady in town... Natalie Lane's got no time for newbies. The prettiest gal to ever put on a pair of work gloves, there's nothing she can't do to keep a farm up and running. But when a handsome city-slicker rolls into town with nothing but bad farmer's instincts and good intentions, Natalie's heartstrings are pulled. She's about to teach him a thing or two about how to survive in Sweetheart. And he's about to teach her a thing or two about love...in MaryJanice Davidson's *Danger, Sweetheart. *

The national bestseller from the renowned artist and author Patti Smith, exploring the nature of creative invention A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic—its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our culture’s beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections. Patti Smith first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession—a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus’s house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano’s novels. Whether writing in a café or a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book on writing. The Why I Write series is based on the Windham-Campbell Lectures, delivered annually to commemorate the awarding of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes at Yale University.